It appears that you are using either an older, classic Web browser or a hand-held device that allows you to view our content but may not work with every feature of our site. If you are using an older browser, please upgrade for the best experience.

Juliette Kayyem

In government, the academy, private sector and journalism, Juliette Kayyem has served as a national leader in America’s homeland security efforts.

Kayyem is founder of one of the few female-owned security businesses and provides strategic advice to a range of companies in technology, risk management, mega-event planning and venture capital. As a faculty member at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, she teaches new leaders in emergency management and national security and has authored several books on homeland security.

Kayyem has spent over 15 years managing complex policy initiatives and organizing government responses to major crises in both state and federal government. Most recently, she was President Obama’s Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. There she played a pivotal role in major operations including handling of the H1N1 pandemic and the BP Oil Spill response, as well as organizing major policy efforts in immigration reform and community resiliency. Before that, she was Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s homeland security advisor where she guided regional planning, the state’s first interoperability plan, and oversaw the National Guard. She has also served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorism, a legal advisor to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and a trial attorney and counselor in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. She is the recipient of many government honors, including the Distinguished Public Service Award, the Coast Guard’s highest medal awarded to a civilian.

A journalist and commentator, she has a weekly segment on Boston’s public radio station WGBH. For nearly eight days straight, she provided non-stop analysis during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings for CNN, where she continues to serve as a security analyst. In 2013, she was named the Pulitzer Prize finalist for her hard-charging editorial columns in the Boston Globe focused on ending the Pentagon’s combat exclusion rule against women, a policy that was changed that year.

She is a board member of Mass Inc., the Boston 2024 Olympic Committee, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. Described as a “rising star” of the Democratic party, in 2014 Kayyem was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and the mother of three children, she is married to First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge David Barron. Her memoir –The Education of a Security Mom – will be published by Simon and Shuster in 2015.

2015

"Our laws are based around the notion that the military is not an armed entity on U.S. soil unless in times of insurrection or when civic institutions are unable to address a crisis. Every state and city has police for that function, and failing that, would then turn to the National Guard troops, first under the direction of the state's governor."

"As someone who has personally undergone the rigorous clearance process, I can tell you that the information these documents hold goes far beyond my Social Security number or the threat of credit card fraud. The government demands extensive information from potential employees — information that is deeply personal, ranging from individual medical history to the whereabouts and livelihoods of distant cousins."

"In an age of lone-wolf attackers, it is even rarer to be able to intercept any communication that would tell law enforcement who — of the thousands of people who toy with ISIS online — is going to attack and when."

Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday (and so many other summer gatherings) host Juliette Kayyem tracked down "the marshall of the mosh pit" Paul Wertheimer to learn more about what to fear in crowds, and how we can protect ourselves. Wertheimer is the founder and head of Crowd Management Strategies, a Los Angeles-based international crowd safety consulting service with a specialty in concert and festival safety issues.

By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy and Jessica Stern, Former Lecturer in Public Policy; Former Faculty Affiliate, International Security Program

On this week's episode of "Security Mom," Juliette Kayyem sits down with Dr. Jessica Stern. She's spent a career in government and academia as a thought leader, advisor and author of books that look at the world of terror, including her most recent book ISIS.

On this week's episode of "Security Mom," Juliette Kayyem sits down with Ken Feinberg, who's sometimes referred to as the Compensation Czar. He's a contemplative and frank man who has distributed funds to victims of some the worst crises of our times, from 9/11 to the Boston Marathon bombing.

"The world is physically changing and that will put demands on future U.S. military officers. For the Coast Guard in particular, the changes in water — from the opening of the Arctic Ocean due to warming atmosphere to the devastation we have seen (and will see) in coastal nations — will bring about a brand new world order. This administration should know. Now that the Arctic is relatively ice-free for several months each year, a new and lasting occurrence, the administration recently approved offshore drilling in the Arctic, bringing a new challenge to the Coast Guard's response and recovery efforts."

"..[T]he orchestrated U.S. government announcements about the documents, computers and other financial materials that were captured in the raid have got to make a lot of ISIS leaders very nervous. And it is likely to make members of ISIS who have avoided the violence of the battlefield — men like Sayyaf — believe that not even an office job is safe."

The present Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Sunday that what we need to fear are the strangers from abroad who infiltrate through the Internet, radicalize our citizens, and set them on a course of destruction. It is a scary thought, though it shouldn't be that surprising, given that terrorists have always adapted to new means of communication. They just discovered Twitter, that's all.

Juliette Kayyem spoke with former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff about what was wrong with the color-coded terror alert system, so we might better understand the bigger challenges we confront in a world of mayhem—how to understand risk, and how to talk about scary things.

SUBSCRIBE

Events Calendar

We host a busy schedule of events throughout the fall, winter and spring. Past guests include: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Vice President Al Gore, and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.